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Jim Carroll

Music, Life and everything else

The 50 best British music acts right now

In this week’s edition of The Ticket, we count down the 50 best British music acts right now. The list was compiled by Lauren Murphy and myself. We started with three simple rules, more or less the same rules when …

The list was compiled by Lauren Murphy and myself. We started with three simple rules, more or less the same rules when we did this with Irish acts in April 2009: (1) all solo acts had to have been born in Britain (eg England, Scotland or Wales) and/or hold British passports, (2) half or more of bands had to have been born in Britain and/or hold British passports and (3) all acts had to have recorded or released music or played a gig since January 2009. The latter condition ensures we’re dealing with current acts and not ones who haven’t produced a tune of note since the 1980s.

Both of us then drew up an individual list of 50 acts. The crossover names who were on both lists automatically made the chart and this lead to a polite heated debate one afternoon about the pecking order and the other acts who would make the cut. We were in firm agreement about the acts in the Top 10, buy beyond that, the cattle-trading began in earnest. There was huffing, there was puffing, there was childish displays of pique, there were stoney silences, there was a threatened walkout and that was just me when it came to Radiohead.

So here you have it, a list of the 50 British acts which Lauren and myself reckon are a good indication of the state of the musical nation across the Irish Sea. There are established acts and there are brand new acts, everything from new dubstep to old-fashioned rock, stuff you know and stuff you don’t know.

As to the reason why we compiled this list in the first place: whether you like it or not, British musical sounds and acts continue to have a huge influence via the music we hear and experience all the time over here. Yes, we know Irish music can compete at every level with what’s on this list – as Lauren notes in the piece, “It would have been incredibly easy to draw up a similar list of Irish acts that are fully capable of going head-to-head and toe-to-toe with their British peers”. But we did that back in 2009 so it’s the Brits’ turn this time around.

Now, over to you. What acts did we overlook? What acts should not be on this list? You know the score. We’re all ears.